“Nuclear waste ‘dangerous for millennia, even millions of years, cannot be shut off”.

Sheree Bega, a multi award winning journalist, of Saturday Star, South Africa’s leading weekend paper, wrote an excellent article titled “Nuclear waste ‘dangerous for millennia, even millions of years, cannot be shut off”. The article was published yesterday in the Saturday Star.

“One small pellet of uranium fuel provides as much energy as a ton of coal – without generating greenhouse gases. But it’s so dangerous it can never, ever be thrown away.

“The main disadvantage if nuclear energy … is you have to keep an eye on it (the pellet) for the next 10 million years”, explained Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, this week.

Processes such as nuclear fission created hundreds of new materials that were “intensely radioactive”, he said.

“We do not know how to destroy or neutralise these wastes. Nuclear wastes are dangerous for millennia, even millions of years.”

Edwards was a speaker at the International Nuclearisation of Africa Symposium held in Joburg, and organised by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear war (IPPNW) – a Nobel Peace Prize laureate – the African Uranium Alliance and the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE).

The symposium, said organisers, focused on the impact of uranium mining on health and the environment and renewable energies.

Disposing of nuclear waste equated to “abandonment” and this approach was not “scientifically certain”, said Edwards.

“Radioactivity cannot be shut off. Science has no way to slow down, speed up or stop the rate of radioactive emissions. That’s why radioactive waste is a great unsolved problem.”

Humans, he believed, had never safely disposed of anything. “That’s why we have a nuclear waste problem.”

Professor Andreas Nidecker, a member of the IPPNW board, said its focus was on the abolishment of nuclear weapons, but it was also interested in the entire nuclear chain.

“In this regard, uranium as the resource for both nuclear energy and nuclear bombs has been our concern for years. Uranium-containing ores are a by-product of gold mining.”

Edwards said radioactive materials entered air, water and soil, and had distinct pathways in the human body. “They get into fish , water and plants, animals and humans. A small fraction of the population will develop cancer, years later. Infants and children are especially vulnerable.”

There were “hundreds” of radioactive poisons with distinct biological pathways.

“At low levels, radioactive does not attack humans directly – it damages cells. A population is like an ocean of cells. A fraction of those cells will develop into cancer.

“But there is a latency period – the onset of disease may happen years or decades after exposure.”

Chronic radioactive exposures at low does increased the incidence of cancer, leukaemia, genetic damage, strokes, heart attacks and other blood diseases, as well as low intelligence in young children, Edwards pointed out.

Citing gold mining on the Witwatersrand and uranium mining he said 85 percent of the radioactivity in the ore was left behind in the tailings.

Mariette Liefferink, of the FSE, said the world has become “sober to the unimaginable power of uranium after Hiroshima and Nagasaki (in world War II), the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and, more recently, Fukushima.

“In view of the globally expanding use of renewables, South Africa has the chance to become the African leader for a sustainable energy future and this at a fraction of the cost and fewer risks compared with a nuclear power system.”

Mycle Schneider, an independent nuclear expert, told delegates that nuclear’s position in the power market was “increasingly threatened by a shrinking client base, increasing production costs, stagnating electricity consumption and ferocious competitors, especially from the renewable energy sector.”

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment co-hosted the recent Nuclearisation of Africa Conference. The event brought together experts and interested parties on matters relating to nuclear energy, waste and mining of radio-active material.

Prof. Nidecker of Radiology, University of Basel, Switzerland. Past president and board member of PSR / IPPNW Switzerland is interviewed along with independent international consultant on energy and nuclear policy releases, Co-author of yearly world Nuclear Industry Status Report, Mycle Schneider. In this podcast they highlight topics and insights from the Symposium, "Nuclearisation of Africa".

Federation For a Sustainable Environment « Nuclearisation of Africa » Symposium 19. Nov 2015 There is a clear global downtrend in the civil use of nuclear power, as documented by the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report and as discussed at the international Symposium on « Nuclearisation of Africa » concluded on the 19th of November in Johannesburg.

Sheree Bega, a multi award winning journalist, of Saturday Star, South Africa’s leading weekend paper, wrote an excellent article titled “Nuclear waste ‘dangerous for millennia, even millions of years, cannot be shut off”. The article was published yesterday in the Saturday Star.

The world has become sober to the unimaginable power of uranium after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and recently, Fukushima.A new set of serious health problems, collectively known as Gulf War Syndrome, and epidemiological data from the Wismut cohort have become available to researchers.

Uranium mining can have detrimental effects on the health of the miners and their families. An interdisciplinary team of doctors and scientists will report on this and on efforts of the nuclear industry to promote the civilian use of nuclear power in Africa at a Symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa from 16th to 19th November 2015.

On 25 June 2014 the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) had a quarterly meeting with several Non-Governmental Organisations to discuss matters of concern. During this meeting, a presentation was made by Ms M Liefferink, Chief Executive Officer of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE). Ms Liefferink requested response from the NNR on a number of concerns previously raised. These were documented and the NNR provided a written response.

The immediate case of the disaster at Fukushima may have been a natural once, but the official report to Japan's parliament says the ultimate culprit was a weak regulation - a lesson South Africa cannot afford to ignore.

FACIAL TREATMENT: Patience Mjadu, 44 inside her shack in Tudor Shaft informal settlement, with her face smeared with toxic soil from mining waste mixed with skin lotion and water. Mjadu believes the soil helps with her pimples and protects her face from the sun.

Despite intensive and extensive investigations undertaken and reports issued by several government departments several years ago into the health hazards associated with a toxic environment in the Johannesburg region, the situation persists with little to no remedial action taken to date.

Soweto, Johannesburg - Thousands of people face evacuation from greater Johannesburg in the Gauteng province - the economic heartland of South Africa - due to toxic sludge from abandoned gold mines laced with high radiation levels.

Experts warn old mine dumps could cause birth defects and brain disorders
Patience Mjadu can't bear the pimples that dot her face. So, like other women in her impoverished informal settlement, she has resorted to a novel but potentially dangerous form of treatment involving toxic and radioactive mining waste.

In the wasteland that is Johan Kondos’s farm, a lush green field brings hope.“This is what a farm is supposed to look like,” he says, gesturing proudly to his prized lucerne crop, seemingly untainted by the surrounding mining pollution.This lone field, and a few beloved cattle, is all Kondos has left of his farm in Hartbeesfontein in the North West.

One of the most abundant heavy metals in the earth's crust, uranium is a known radiological element and toxin. It is also a major by-product of gold mining, historically one of South Africa's greatest economic undertakings. The country additionally began mining specifically for uranium in 1949, primarily for export to the United States and other nuclear-intensive countries throughout the Cold War. As the conflict between East and West subsided, uranium mining waned, with the gold output from the Witwatersrand reef also declining. Today, hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium by-product sit in mine dumps scattered across the country, with 100 000 tons of the heavy metal in Gauteng's Western Basin and Far Western Basin alone, according to Frank Winde of the North-West University at Potchefstroom.

Uranium has been considered both a radiological and also a heavy metal poison, following calcium in its distribution within the body, i.e. building up in bone, and with the principle target for toxicity being the lung and the kidney. Recently, it has been shown that uranium also targets the brain.

"The 2006 Energy Review merely exacerbated the problem. It acknowledged that the UK would not meet its emissions targets without nuclear, but did almost nothing to address the problem of the reluctance of the market to fund a new generation of plants.

The hazardous mining by-product raises two questions – who’s to blame and who should pay.
The acid mine drainage crisis is going to cost someone a lot of money, but probably not the people who caused it. The “polluter pays” principle was next to impossible to apply to the acid mine drainage problem in a retrospective way, said Marius Keet, chief director for mine water management at the department of water and sanitation.

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment is proud to announce the launch of the booklet titled “Rehabilitation of Mine Contaminated Eco-Systems. A Contribution to a Just Transition to a Low Carbon Economy to Combat Unemployment and Climate Change” by Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE). The booklet was commissioned by the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) in collaboration with the Friedrick Ebert Stiftung.

Last week, the coalition of eight civil society and community organisations that has been resisting the proposed coal mine inside a protected area and strategic water source area in Mpumalanga launched further proceedings in the Pretoria High Court.

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